Ive spent a big chunk of the last four years writing about how technology is changing the way battles are fought. Now its time for me to witness those changes close-up and see how war still remains brutally, awfully the same. Im leaving for Iraq on Saturday morning, on assignment for Wired magazine.
For the moment, I cant go into too many details about what Ill be doing there. Its just too tasty a story to let out of the oven before its baked. But heres what I can say: Ill be embedding with a high-tech Army unit one thats playing an absolutely central role in the counterinsurgency there. If these soldiers fail in their missions, the entire coalition operation could go up in smoke. If they succeed, lots and lots of American and Iraqi lives will be saved.
It’s unclear how much blogging I’m going to be able to do while I’m over there. I’m certainly going to try to do as much as I can. But while Im gone which should be about three weeks three supremely qualified guest-bloggers will be at the helm of Defense Tech HQ, each for a week apiece:
- Dan Dupont is the editor of the fascinating Inside Defense family of newsletters, and is a frequent contributor to Scientific American magazine.
– Dr. Jeffrey Lewis, who runs the always-excellent Arms Control Wonk blog, is a Research Fellow at the Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland. He last guest-blogged here in December.
– Dr. Jim Lewis has served as a political advisor to U.S. Southern Command, U.S. Central Command, and to the U.S. Central American Task Force. He now heads up the Technology and Public Policy Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
You can reach them at the regular address, defense-AT-defensetech-DOT-com. Ill be based out of Camp Victory, near the Baghdad airport. So if youre stationed there, gimme a shout. My usual e-mail home has been swamped by a spam-storm; try me instead at noah-DOT-shachtman-AT-gmail-DOT-com.
